3. The Americans in England found a welcome which became a global legend
The earliest American combat units to arrive in the United Kingdom, other than staff, were members of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Although Britain’s Royal Air Force had been by then bombing targets in Germany at night for more than two years, USAAF efforts were limited to short-range missions in France and the Low Countries. The United States proposed a daylight strategic bombing campaign, which the British found unwise. To support the troops, USO camps were established in Great Britain, usually open to American and British servicemen. The British had their own equivalent, the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), established in 1939, the year they entered the war. Although they were popular with British troops, largely because the British were paid substantially less than their American allies, ENSA soon developed into the phrase, “Every Night Something Awful”.
The Americans found their superior pay rates offered them a substantial advantage when meeting British women. The advantage led to the evolution of the British gripe the Americans were “Overpaid, oversexed, and over here“. Americans enjoyed the British restaurants, hotels, cinemas, pubs, and other entertainments, most of which were outside the curve of affordability for their British counterparts in uniform. The Americans also brought with them many of their home-based traditions. At US bases during the war years, the Americans prepared and served traditional Thanksgiving dinners to their British hosts, introduced them to baseball and American football, and showered them with American cigarettes, beer, and other luxuries. They also struggled to learn how to drive on what they considered the wrong side of the road, seated in the wrong side of the car. Many senior American officers had British drivers for just that reason.